Rosenfeld v. Basquiat
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
78 F.3d 84 (1996)
Art dealer Michelle Rosenfeld (plaintiff) claimed she orally agreed with artist Jean-Michel Basquiat to buy three paintings for $4,000 each, memorialized only by a crayon note listing the total price, a deposit, and a date, signed by both. After Basquiat died years later without delivering the paintings, Rosenfeld sued his estate's administrator, Gerard Basquiat (defendant), for damages or specific performance. A first trial ended in a hung jury; at the second trial, portions of Rosenfeld's earlier testimony were read in without objection, and the jury found for Rosenfeld. Gerard appealed, arguing both that the prior testimony was improperly admitted and that the statute of frauds barred the claim because the crayon note omitted terms like the delivery date.
Whether the statute of frauds requires a writing evidencing a contract for the sale of goods to contain all of the contract's material terms.